A TALE OF HORRIBLE PAIN!
So AmeriCorps took us (all the TLs) out to dinner tonight at a Chinese buffet. I wandered around for a while and filled my plate with food that looked promising. Part of my plate was from a salad bar thing. I had red onions, green and red peppers, broccoli, carrots, and maybe some other stuff I don't remember. All delicious, right? I sat down with my food and the first thing I ate was a piece of green pepper. OH MY GOODNESS THAT WASN'T A GREEN PEPPER. In case you weren't aware, I canNOT handle spiciness AT ALL. I popped the piece in my mouth and chewed approximately 1.5 times before my mouth was on fire. I am very proud of myself that I didn't yell or cry or spit it out, I actually managed to chew it the rest of the way and swallow, but then the pain got worse. My thinking was somehow clear enough through the pain panic that I remembered that you're not supposed to drink water, you're supposed to drink milk (which of course was not present) or eat bread, but I didn't have any. I took a bite of egg role, but that didn't help. I took a bite of chicken, but that didn't help. Though I managed not to yell through this ordeal, a couple people around me noticed the (probable) pain on my face and asked if I was ok. I said yeah, that was just really spicy. They asked what, and I pointed to the pepper. They informed me that it was a jalapeno pepper. A JALAPENO PEPPER! I think it's the way it was cut that totally made it look to me like a regular old harmless green pepper. Meg went and got me a piece of bread, and Lupita had French fries (why there were fries at a Chinese buffet, I have no idea) that she shared, so that took some of the edge off. I was pretty traumatized though. All I ate after that were fries, green beans, and chicken. Why do people willingly eat jalapeno peppers? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! Also, the stupid thing was covered in seeds, as peppers in restaurants frequently are. I'm pretty sure I have a jalapeno tree growing in my stomach right now, just lurking there waiting to destroy me. (Do jalapenos grow on trees? Or does the devil just keep them in potted plants in his backyard?)
Whew. Now that that's out of the way, I can tell you the latest TLT news. On Monday of last week, we had some boring meetings that aren't even really worth writing about, and then Habitat training all afternoon. Each unit did it at different times, so I was only with Sun people. We went to the local Habitat for Humanity warehouse for a guy named Bruce to teach us how to use tools that I've been using for the past six or so years. He taught us about miter saws, circular saws, chalk lines, drills, and hammers. We then had to pair up and go around to different stations to actually use each of the tools. We had to make cuts with the various saws to specific measurements and practice drilling and hammering. We practiced with all the things for a while, then he made us take a "test" with all the tools. Really the only part worth mentioning was that he wouldn't let us leave until we had put a 16-penny nail (those are the big ones) in a piece of wood in three hits. There were framing hammers there for us to practice with (huge heavy hammers that are pretty much made to sink 16-penny nails), which I have never used before. They're kind of nice when you get the hang of them. I got a nail in three hits a couple times during the practice, but it didn't count unless Bruce was watching during the test part. It took me a while to do it with an audience, but I did it a couple more times!
The rest of the week was pretty chaotic. We had a little mini-spike Wednesday through Friday, so Tuesday was all just getting ready for that. A spike is a project where the team lives somewhere other than on campus, remember. The mini-spike was just to show new people what a spike is like and prepare them for what's to come a bit better. Here's the silly part: So we're already split into four units, right? Well for this we were split into three groups, A, B, and C. We would be working and traveling with our group, but buying food, cooking, and checking out tools and dishes with our unit. Does that make sense? No. It does not. So Tuesday was spent with our units, checking out equipment and making a grocery list and shopping. The problem here is that there was no clear leader. This is a big group of leaders. My unit gets along really well, but there were a few differences of opinion in how to go about organizing the day.
Wednesday, we left for our spike. The plan was that each group would work with Habitat here in Denver for one of the three days, then spend the other two days working at the campsite where we would be living. Group A at Habitat Wednesday, B on Thursday, and C on Friday. Also, everyone had another day of service thing on Saturday, and group C would be working at Red Rocks Park that day. So Wednesday, A went to Habitat, B (my group) went to the campsite, and C went to Red Rocks for an orientation thing for their project on Saturday. They were supposed to meet us at the campsite after lunch. Well B got to the campsite, and Matt, the supervisor, told us that there was a change of plans and he was going to take us to Red Rocks to do the orientation with C. Even though it was an orientation for something we wouldn't be at. Ok, whatever, we do what we're told here. So we were all bored for about an hour and a half during this orientation, and then they unexpectedly put both B and C to work moving rocks. There were big piles of rocks along the road that needed to be spread along the trail because one of the projects for the Saturday thing was to build a couple rock walls. It was fine for a while, because most of the rocks weren't too big, we didn't have far to take them, and a few times we formed a line and passed them down while singing Disney songs. Then, we got to the fourth pile. This pile was made mostly of BIG rocks, and they had to be taken first down a really steep hill, then a LONG way away. We tried carrying individual rocks all the way from the pile to the destination (way too exhausting!) and also passing them down a line and throwing them down the steep part to people waiting at the bottom, but those didn't really work. We ended up throwing/rolling them down the hill right from the pile, and then people carried them together the rest of the way. Also, Red Rocks park is called Red Rocks for a reason. The rocks are all covered in red dust, which got all over us. Even though we have to tuck our shirts in with the uniform, everyone's stomach was red by the end of the day. It was ridiculous.
My group was supposed to go to Habitat on Thursday. However, we were told at that orientation that someone would need to be there to set up the Saturday thing (there would be like 200 volunteers there on Saturday that they needed to get ready for), but C was supposed to be at Habitat. B and C just ended up switching Habitat days so C could set up their own thing at Red Rocks on Friday. So on Thursday, we finished that pile of rocks. Then we were sent to help get rid of a bunch of Russian Olive trees, which are an invasive species. Two Red Rocks employees chainsawed them down and cut them into manageable pieces, and groups A and B (25 people) carried them into piles. Does that sound like a productive use of time? If it does, I described it wrong. There were about 20 of us just standing and waiting at all times. It was a little silly.
After that, Matt took us to see the amphitheater, since a lot of people had never been there. Then he took us to go climb around in a cave. Then he took us to an old CCC camp. (Tangent: The CCC is the Civilian Conservation Corps, which existed for several years after the depression. Men 18-25 years old could work for room, board, a uniform, and I think $25 a month. $5 would go to them and $20 would go home to their families. The CCC built the amphitheater at Red Rocks. They were nicknamed the tree army, because they also planted a ridiculous number of trees and build a ridiculous amount of trails in national parks. National parks pretty much wouldn't be the same without the CCC. My specific AmeriCorps program is called NCCC, pronounced N triple C, which stands for National Civilian Community Corps. NCCC is kind of modeled after the CCC. Oh look, a link if you want to know more. I think it's pretty cool. Also, my maternal grandfather was in the CCC back in the day, which I didn't know until after I already decided to join NCCC. End tangent.) The CCC camp had also served as a chapter of CCC alumni. We didn't get to meet anyone, but we did get to look around and see lots of pictures and read stories and stuff. It was really pretty cool.
Finally Friday was B's day at Habitat. The house was mostly done, there was just little indoor finishing work to do. I spackled and caulked all day. It's tedious and boring work, but I don't mind it that much. I alternated between working with other people and getting to talk and working by myself and getting to zone out and turn my brain off. Not a terrible day.
On Saturday, while group C was at the Red Rocks thing, A and B went to a different volunteer day, the Platte River Sweep. It was pretty cool. There was a bunch of free swag, which is always nice. Most of the volunteers were just picking up trash, but our group got to do some landscaping and painting railings and stuff. At the end, they raffled off like 30 things. I think like 10 of us won something. I won an umbrella. Someone else won a mini-grill/cooler combo. A couple of us won backpacks. A couple won lottery tickets (they didn't win). And we only had to work a half day.
That night was Oktoberfest in Denver. Your guess is as good as mine why it was in September, but whatever. It was fun.
Sunday was spent doing absolutely nothing productive except thinking about writing a blog post. Obviously, that didn't work out.
Which brings us to today. We had to check in all the equipment we checked out for the spike then do a debrief for the staff. Also, all the office team leaders had to sign in to their desktop computers for the first time and watch the boring video that tells us how to be secure with computers that are on a government network (like our desktops are). It was super complicated to get into, but then the video was boring.
In the afternoon, we had the first four of our twelve hours of Supervisory Skills. 1-5pm today, then all day tomorrow. Not much to say about that. It was fairly boring, but the guy leading it probably did as well as was possible.
And now it's almost bedtime. Good night!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Week 2 of TLT
The week started off with everyone's favorite thing: van safety! Oh, the joys of sitting in a room for three hours being told multiple times that the vans are heavier and more top heavy than cars and that you need to use a ground guide when you back up. Then, like last year, the rest of the day was spent in a van with the rest of my unit driving around. TK, Matt, and I were drivers last year, so Vaughn didn't make us drive that day, but the other six Sun people did.
Tuesday was learning about AmeriCorps expectations of TLs, and also learning (again) how to change a van tire, check the oil, put on the snow chains, and all that other fun stuff. Is it sad that I can sum up an entire day in just one sentence?
Wednesday was yet more safety training. I don't even remember what exactly we talked about, but I'm pretty sure most of it was common sense. We also had a little session to learn about how to motivate our teams to do PT (ooh! Another acronym!) and think of different activities to do with them.
After lunch, we got our technology packages! For office TLs like myself, that only meant our government-issued cell phones. But still, that's kind of exciting I think. They're even brand new this year. The TLs phones last year were pretty beaten up. Field TLs also got a laptop and a GPS, which I will also have for the round when I go into the field and have a project.
That night, a friend of one of the staff who is a yoga teacher came to do a class for the Sun and Water units (Earth and Fire had their class the night before. There's too many of us for one class like that.). The first third or half of the 1.5 hour session was really pretty hard. There were a lot of really difficult moves that not many people could actually do. After that, she slowed down and it got a lot more relaxation and stretching oriented. I didn't enjoy that intense part at the time, but I sure felt good when it was over.
The next morning, with half of us sore from yoga the night before and the other half STILL a bit sore from yoga two days ago, we had PT at 6am with two of the staff people. I remember that before I left for my last AmeriCorps year, I read somewhere that you do PT five days a week during CTI. I'm pretty sure I did official group PT like twice during that whole month. Apparently, they're a lot more serious about making TLs do it. Every Tuesday and Thursday we'll be doing PT. This first session was at 6am and lead by staff members, but every other one will be lead by fellow TLs (and I also heard we can decide as a group to do it after work instead of 6am if we want). The way-too-perky-for-6am staff members led us through some stretches and cardio stuff in the freezing cold of still-dark 6am-ness, then brought out the Fit Deck. The Fit Deck is something that was just been purchased, and they said every team will have one when they leave for projects. It's just a deck of cards each with a different exercise on them. They were split into four groups based on what part of the body it worked, and we rotated through them with our units. Some of them were hard, some were funny, and overall it wasn't too bad. It's nice when there are other people around for that sort of thing sometimes.
After 6am PT when the day actually started, we had an entire day with the Program Directors. These are the people who go over organizations' applications to have an AmeriCorps team and decide what projects we do. The three people were very nice and not bad speakers, but the room was the exact too-warm temperature that makes everyone sleepy. And we had to be in there all day, with the exception of our lunch break. Whew. That was a really long day.
Friday, we had a lesson in cultural competency. It started off where we were all at different tables in groups of five with a deck of cards and rules for a card game. We practiced the game for a few minutes, then started a tournament. The tables were numbered and the object was to get to table number one. (The two winners of each round move up a table and the two losers move down a table after each round.) When the tournament started, we were no longer allowed to talk. As could probably be expected from this situation, each original group had received a different set of rules. It was kind of interesting. We also had a session with the Resource Manager, who taught us how to document our use of our budget while on spike. Since the budget can be as much as like $6,000 of government money on a debit card (it is used for food and hotels during travel, groceries, laundry, etc.), it all has to be carefully documented on a complicated-looking Excel spreadsheet. We also had an activity where he gave us a huge packet of receipt photocopies and had us put them into the spreadsheet to make the budget balance out, and also find the charges with missing receipts on the bank activity printout. It was difficult and we didn't even have enough time to finish, but we all agreed that it will probably be much easier when it's our own stuff not a jumble of someone else's, and when we can update our form every few days or so and not do all the receipts all at once.
Also, as some of you may know, yesterday was my birthday. In the middle of lunch on Friday, everyone started singing happy birthday to be and also brought out a cake (that was from the local Super Target and was way more delicious than you'd expect a Target cake to be) and a card that everyone had signed. It was really nice.
We went out that night, first to hang out in a park in Denver and then go to a couple bars. They sang happy birthday again at the bar when it tuned midnight.
I had a nice relaxing day on my actual birthday also. After lunch, I went to a mall that was a bit farther away than I was expecting, but it was a pretty nice one. I haven't been shopping in a really long time. Then we went out again that night. It was a pretty nice birthday weekend.
I feel like there was something else that was kind of random that I wanted to talk about here, but I don't remember. Hmm. Maybe it'll come to me.
Tuesday was learning about AmeriCorps expectations of TLs, and also learning (again) how to change a van tire, check the oil, put on the snow chains, and all that other fun stuff. Is it sad that I can sum up an entire day in just one sentence?
Wednesday was yet more safety training. I don't even remember what exactly we talked about, but I'm pretty sure most of it was common sense. We also had a little session to learn about how to motivate our teams to do PT (ooh! Another acronym!) and think of different activities to do with them.
After lunch, we got our technology packages! For office TLs like myself, that only meant our government-issued cell phones. But still, that's kind of exciting I think. They're even brand new this year. The TLs phones last year were pretty beaten up. Field TLs also got a laptop and a GPS, which I will also have for the round when I go into the field and have a project.
That night, a friend of one of the staff who is a yoga teacher came to do a class for the Sun and Water units (Earth and Fire had their class the night before. There's too many of us for one class like that.). The first third or half of the 1.5 hour session was really pretty hard. There were a lot of really difficult moves that not many people could actually do. After that, she slowed down and it got a lot more relaxation and stretching oriented. I didn't enjoy that intense part at the time, but I sure felt good when it was over.
The next morning, with half of us sore from yoga the night before and the other half STILL a bit sore from yoga two days ago, we had PT at 6am with two of the staff people. I remember that before I left for my last AmeriCorps year, I read somewhere that you do PT five days a week during CTI. I'm pretty sure I did official group PT like twice during that whole month. Apparently, they're a lot more serious about making TLs do it. Every Tuesday and Thursday we'll be doing PT. This first session was at 6am and lead by staff members, but every other one will be lead by fellow TLs (and I also heard we can decide as a group to do it after work instead of 6am if we want). The way-too-perky-for-6am staff members led us through some stretches and cardio stuff in the freezing cold of still-dark 6am-ness, then brought out the Fit Deck. The Fit Deck is something that was just been purchased, and they said every team will have one when they leave for projects. It's just a deck of cards each with a different exercise on them. They were split into four groups based on what part of the body it worked, and we rotated through them with our units. Some of them were hard, some were funny, and overall it wasn't too bad. It's nice when there are other people around for that sort of thing sometimes.
After 6am PT when the day actually started, we had an entire day with the Program Directors. These are the people who go over organizations' applications to have an AmeriCorps team and decide what projects we do. The three people were very nice and not bad speakers, but the room was the exact too-warm temperature that makes everyone sleepy. And we had to be in there all day, with the exception of our lunch break. Whew. That was a really long day.
Friday, we had a lesson in cultural competency. It started off where we were all at different tables in groups of five with a deck of cards and rules for a card game. We practiced the game for a few minutes, then started a tournament. The tables were numbered and the object was to get to table number one. (The two winners of each round move up a table and the two losers move down a table after each round.) When the tournament started, we were no longer allowed to talk. As could probably be expected from this situation, each original group had received a different set of rules. It was kind of interesting. We also had a session with the Resource Manager, who taught us how to document our use of our budget while on spike. Since the budget can be as much as like $6,000 of government money on a debit card (it is used for food and hotels during travel, groceries, laundry, etc.), it all has to be carefully documented on a complicated-looking Excel spreadsheet. We also had an activity where he gave us a huge packet of receipt photocopies and had us put them into the spreadsheet to make the budget balance out, and also find the charges with missing receipts on the bank activity printout. It was difficult and we didn't even have enough time to finish, but we all agreed that it will probably be much easier when it's our own stuff not a jumble of someone else's, and when we can update our form every few days or so and not do all the receipts all at once.
Also, as some of you may know, yesterday was my birthday. In the middle of lunch on Friday, everyone started singing happy birthday to be and also brought out a cake (that was from the local Super Target and was way more delicious than you'd expect a Target cake to be) and a card that everyone had signed. It was really nice.
We went out that night, first to hang out in a park in Denver and then go to a couple bars. They sang happy birthday again at the bar when it tuned midnight.
I had a nice relaxing day on my actual birthday also. After lunch, I went to a mall that was a bit farther away than I was expecting, but it was a pretty nice one. I haven't been shopping in a really long time. Then we went out again that night. It was a pretty nice birthday weekend.
I feel like there was something else that was kind of random that I wanted to talk about here, but I don't remember. Hmm. Maybe it'll come to me.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Team Leader Training!
Hello readers! I hope all 3.5 of you have been doing well since my last post. As you may or may not know, I'm back in Denver for a second year of AmeriCorps, but this time as a team leader! (More specifically, as a Unit Development Assistant [or because the government loves acronyms, a UDA], but more about that at a later date. You know, when I actually know what that job entails.) Even though I am an office team leader, right now ALL of the team leaders are in the same training, to learn how to lead a team. I'll have specific UDA training in a few weeks I think, but right now I'm with everyone else.
I feel it is important to note that I now get to wear a color! TLs wear the exact same uniform as Corps Members, except that TL shirts are green instead of gray. Have you seen gray and khaki together? It's not attractive. Getting to wear a color in general is exciting, but green also happens to be one of my favorite colors to wear.
So how's TLT (Team Leader Training, of course) going? Well, the other TLs are wonderful so far. I have of course met them all, but haven't had a chance to talk much with some of them still. I'm in the Sun Unit again, and the other Sun TLs are great. I am with TK (who you may remember was on my team last year) again, as well as Ashley (who will be in the office with me as a Support Team Leader, but more on that later as well) and Matt, who were both Sun Corps Members last year on different teams. We also have Brandon, Meg, Cody, Lupita, and Stephanie, all of whom have never been in AmeriCorps before. It is my understanding that most of the Sun TLs from last year didn't like each other very much, so I'm happy to report that I think this year will be MUCH better in that regard.
So what have I been doing? I arrived in Denver last Monday night and was able to stay with Amy, my fabulous tentmate from my shuffle team in Big Bend last year. She lives in Denver with her sister. The next morning I picked TK up from the airport and we went to campus, where we were apparently early and no one knew what to do with us. Meg arrived right after we did, so it was nice to meet another from our unit so soon. That day, we didn't do much besides check into our rooms and unpack. AmeriCorps also took us all to dinner at Old Country Buffet, because we're classy like that.
Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot to talk about right now. It's all been fairly boring meetings so far. There's been learning about the rules of living in the dorm, learning how to use government-issued laptops that are full of people's personal information safely, registering personal vehicles that people (like me!) may have driven to campus, learning the role and responsibilities of TLs, and of course the always enjoyable TB and drug tests. I'm TB free! (Also drug free, but that doesn't rhyme.)
The only interesting "official" activity so far was yesterday, when we went to a ropes course in Genesee Park. It's at a higher elevation than Denver, so obviously it was gorgeous. After a silly version of freeze tag in the morning, we had a pretty interesting activity. There were ropes laid out on the ground in like a plus sign, but then we found out it was really an x and y axis with a whole spectrum in between. Remember math class? First, we put ourselves along the x axis. One end of the spectrum was for people who go with the flow, are happy to do what everyone else wants to do, don't usually state their needs, that sort of thing. The other end was for people who are really opinionated, state their needs, make decisions quickly, etc. After we had plotted ourselves along that line based on where we think we are in the spectrum, we moved on to the y axis. One end of that spectrum was for people who tend to think logically and gather as much information as possible before making decisions, while the other end was more emotionally charged and made decisions based on feelings. Staying where we were along the x axis, we moved along the y to where we thought we should be for that second spectrum. So now all the TLs were plotted into four different quadrants. Interestingly, most of the Sun Unit was in the same quadrant. We were called Architects and Analysts, people who go with the flow and also make decisions logically.
We then split off into our units and did some group problem-solving activities. In one, three people were blindfolded. Four other people could talk but could not see the blindfolded people, and four others could see the blindfolded people but not talk. That last group had to communicate to the group who could talk what the blindfolded people had to do, and the talkers had to instruct the blindfolded people. I think all of the tasks were just walking around and picking up objects scattered around on the ground, but it was fairly challenging.
After that, we moved to where there were like eight rows of five large flat-ish rocks laid into the ground. We had to get the entire team from one side to the other on top of the rocks, but they had to be in the right order. We went one at a time. If someone guessed a wrong rock, they had to go to the end of the line and the next person had to start from the beginning. It wasn't that hard. It was just trail and error until we figured out the pattern, and then we had so many people that it wasn't hard to remember it.
After that, we went to where the ground was lava, and we had to get all of us from one spot to another using tree stumps and six boards. If we dropped a board or if someone fell into the lava, "something strange or wonderful would happen." We dropped several, causing us to go down to three boards and losing the use of a few arms, but then we got a board back later. That one was cool. We worked pretty well together, and our facilitator told us we took a path she hadn't seen before. Also, I don't think anyone in AmeriCorps has much of a personal space bubble, but we broke through those bubbles pretty quickly with people squished together on stumps and whatnot.
After lunch was the high ropes part of the day. I unfortunately didn't actually go up on any of the three activities due to a couple not-so-good knees and a history of stress fractures in my right foot. I have no desire to have my knees or foot hurt anytime soon. But I was still able to be a spotter, help belay, and cheer people on.
At the end of the day, we got back in our units with that x and y axis. Ali, our facilitator, told us to go back to the quadrant where we were in the morning. She then had the group decide if they thought anyone should move to a different position. Most people stayed about where they were, but they said I should move closer to the middle, where the two axes meet. I think I'll take that as a compliment, that I am pretty balanced.
Tomorrow we get to do the wonderful day of driving tests. I think I heard we might be driving to Rocky Mountain National Park or somewhere cool like that, but it's still several hours in a van.
I still haven't put any pictures from Big Bend or Saguache on this thing, have I? I'll try to do that sometime soon. Apologies for laziness.
Oh! But look on the side! I figured out how to make a nifty little text box on the left side that I will fill with those beloved-by-the-government acronyms as I think of them.
Also, I just noticed that this is blog post number 101. I posted on this thing 100 times in the past year. Crazy.
I feel it is important to note that I now get to wear a color! TLs wear the exact same uniform as Corps Members, except that TL shirts are green instead of gray. Have you seen gray and khaki together? It's not attractive. Getting to wear a color in general is exciting, but green also happens to be one of my favorite colors to wear.
So how's TLT (Team Leader Training, of course) going? Well, the other TLs are wonderful so far. I have of course met them all, but haven't had a chance to talk much with some of them still. I'm in the Sun Unit again, and the other Sun TLs are great. I am with TK (who you may remember was on my team last year) again, as well as Ashley (who will be in the office with me as a Support Team Leader, but more on that later as well) and Matt, who were both Sun Corps Members last year on different teams. We also have Brandon, Meg, Cody, Lupita, and Stephanie, all of whom have never been in AmeriCorps before. It is my understanding that most of the Sun TLs from last year didn't like each other very much, so I'm happy to report that I think this year will be MUCH better in that regard.
So what have I been doing? I arrived in Denver last Monday night and was able to stay with Amy, my fabulous tentmate from my shuffle team in Big Bend last year. She lives in Denver with her sister. The next morning I picked TK up from the airport and we went to campus, where we were apparently early and no one knew what to do with us. Meg arrived right after we did, so it was nice to meet another from our unit so soon. That day, we didn't do much besides check into our rooms and unpack. AmeriCorps also took us all to dinner at Old Country Buffet, because we're classy like that.
Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot to talk about right now. It's all been fairly boring meetings so far. There's been learning about the rules of living in the dorm, learning how to use government-issued laptops that are full of people's personal information safely, registering personal vehicles that people (like me!) may have driven to campus, learning the role and responsibilities of TLs, and of course the always enjoyable TB and drug tests. I'm TB free! (Also drug free, but that doesn't rhyme.)
The only interesting "official" activity so far was yesterday, when we went to a ropes course in Genesee Park. It's at a higher elevation than Denver, so obviously it was gorgeous. After a silly version of freeze tag in the morning, we had a pretty interesting activity. There were ropes laid out on the ground in like a plus sign, but then we found out it was really an x and y axis with a whole spectrum in between. Remember math class? First, we put ourselves along the x axis. One end of the spectrum was for people who go with the flow, are happy to do what everyone else wants to do, don't usually state their needs, that sort of thing. The other end was for people who are really opinionated, state their needs, make decisions quickly, etc. After we had plotted ourselves along that line based on where we think we are in the spectrum, we moved on to the y axis. One end of that spectrum was for people who tend to think logically and gather as much information as possible before making decisions, while the other end was more emotionally charged and made decisions based on feelings. Staying where we were along the x axis, we moved along the y to where we thought we should be for that second spectrum. So now all the TLs were plotted into four different quadrants. Interestingly, most of the Sun Unit was in the same quadrant. We were called Architects and Analysts, people who go with the flow and also make decisions logically.
We then split off into our units and did some group problem-solving activities. In one, three people were blindfolded. Four other people could talk but could not see the blindfolded people, and four others could see the blindfolded people but not talk. That last group had to communicate to the group who could talk what the blindfolded people had to do, and the talkers had to instruct the blindfolded people. I think all of the tasks were just walking around and picking up objects scattered around on the ground, but it was fairly challenging.
After that, we moved to where there were like eight rows of five large flat-ish rocks laid into the ground. We had to get the entire team from one side to the other on top of the rocks, but they had to be in the right order. We went one at a time. If someone guessed a wrong rock, they had to go to the end of the line and the next person had to start from the beginning. It wasn't that hard. It was just trail and error until we figured out the pattern, and then we had so many people that it wasn't hard to remember it.
After that, we went to where the ground was lava, and we had to get all of us from one spot to another using tree stumps and six boards. If we dropped a board or if someone fell into the lava, "something strange or wonderful would happen." We dropped several, causing us to go down to three boards and losing the use of a few arms, but then we got a board back later. That one was cool. We worked pretty well together, and our facilitator told us we took a path she hadn't seen before. Also, I don't think anyone in AmeriCorps has much of a personal space bubble, but we broke through those bubbles pretty quickly with people squished together on stumps and whatnot.
After lunch was the high ropes part of the day. I unfortunately didn't actually go up on any of the three activities due to a couple not-so-good knees and a history of stress fractures in my right foot. I have no desire to have my knees or foot hurt anytime soon. But I was still able to be a spotter, help belay, and cheer people on.
At the end of the day, we got back in our units with that x and y axis. Ali, our facilitator, told us to go back to the quadrant where we were in the morning. She then had the group decide if they thought anyone should move to a different position. Most people stayed about where they were, but they said I should move closer to the middle, where the two axes meet. I think I'll take that as a compliment, that I am pretty balanced.
Tomorrow we get to do the wonderful day of driving tests. I think I heard we might be driving to Rocky Mountain National Park or somewhere cool like that, but it's still several hours in a van.
I still haven't put any pictures from Big Bend or Saguache on this thing, have I? I'll try to do that sometime soon. Apologies for laziness.
Oh! But look on the side! I figured out how to make a nifty little text box on the left side that I will fill with those beloved-by-the-government acronyms as I think of them.
Also, I just noticed that this is blog post number 101. I posted on this thing 100 times in the past year. Crazy.
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